following principles: Human health and longevity depend on the balance between sodium and potassium. Where Western theories of nutrition insisted on the importance of proteins and carbohydrates, Ishizuka considered minerals, especially sodium and potassium, critical to health as their interrelationship determines the ability of the body to absorb and use other nutrients, the proper functioning of the whole body depending on their balance. Food is the major factor determining this balance. Other factors such as geography or climate, physical activity or psychological stress play a secondary role. Living in the mountains or the sea, a dry or wet place, being sedentary or having a strong physical activity produces a certain effect, but what is inserted into the digestive system is basically what determines the relationship between sodium and potassium in the body. Health and sickness depend on food before anything else. The physical base of operation is achieved through proper daily intake of food, balanced at the level of mineral salts. Disease occurs because of an imbalance between sodium and potassium caused by eating improperly. According to Ishizuka, both acute and chronic diseases (infectious or viral) are due to bad food: germs or viruses cannot attack an organism in which the relationship between sodium and potassium are well balanced, even in a case of physical contact. Ishizuka collected his studies in a work called "A Chemical Theory of Nutrition on Health and Longevity", which was published in 1897 in Japan but has never been translated into any Western language. See also George Ohsawa References Ronald E. Kotzsch (1985) Macrobiotics: Yesterday and Today, Japan Publications, New York . Clim Yoshimi: Une Vie de Rêve et de Poésie, in Ignoramus, C.I.M.O., París, 1997–1998 (volS. 36 to 40). 1850 births 1909 deaths Japanese military doctors Macrobiotic diet advocates